Lithium Australia NL (Lithium Australia or the Company) has announced that it will grant an option for Charger Metals NL (Charger) to acquire part of the Company’s Australian exploration assets.
Lithium Australia has granted Charger an option to acquire exploration projects including:
- The Coates Mafic Intrusive Complex (Wundowie Project), which is prospective for nickel, copper and platinum group elements (PGEs), hosted in a mafic intrusion in the highly prospective Western Yilgarn emerging nickel-copper-PGE belt 28 kilometres south-east of Chalice Gold’s Julimar discovery in Western Australia;
- The Lake Johnson Project, near Southern Cross, Western Australia which is prospective for lithium, gold and nickel; and
- The Bynoe Project, prospective for lithium and gold, located near Darwin, Northern Territory.
Lithium Australia retains significant leverage through a 30 per cent interest, free carried to completion of bankable feasibility study, in each Project, and a significant share interest in Charger post Initial Public Offering.
The transaction also enables Lithium Australia to enhance focus on its core business that being to ensure an ethical and sustainable supply of energy metals to the battery industry (enhancing energy security in the process) by creating a circular battery economy.
The Coates Mafic Intrusive Complex
The Coates Mafic Intrusive Complex is located approximately 28 kilometres southeast of the recent nickel-copper-platinum group elements (Ni, Cu, PGE) discovery at the Julimar Project by Chalice Gold Mines, which is rapidly developing as drilling progresses and has generated significant interest in a new exploration province.
The Coates Mafic Intrusive Complex exhibits similar geology to Chalice Gold Mines’ Julimar discovery. The township of Wundowie sits on the flanks of the Coates Mafic Intrusion, which also hosts a vanadium deposit that was mined briefly in the 1980s.
Western Australian examples of mafic intrusions that host nickel mineralisation include Radio Hill near Karratha and Carr Boyd near Kalgoorlie, both of which went on to host underground mines. Overseas examples that are globally significant and include the Norilsk Mine in Russia, Voisey’s Bay in Canada and Jinchuan in China.
Geochemistry results from an adjacent tenement returned encouraging Ni, Cu, Au and PGE anomalies (Refer to Lithium Australia’s announcement 30 July 2020) and provide the motivation to further explore this target.
Lake Johnston Lithium and Gold Project
Reconnaissance geological mapping and geochemical sampling has identified a number of LCT (lithium-caesium-tantalum) pegmatites, and the discovery of a spodumene pegmatite cluster at Bontempelli Hill near Lake Medcalf, Western Australia.
Lithium Australia outlines that the Bontempelli Hill outcrops comprise stacked pegmatites, containing approximately 20-30 per cent spodumene. Rock-chip samples from the pegmatite dyke swarm average 3.6 per cent Li2O, and up to a maximum 7.15 per cent Li2O from spodumene outcrop.
The mineralised pegmatites at this prospect outcrop over an area of 450 x 250 metres. Soil sampling and geology indicate possible extensions to the southeast under adjacent cover. Individual dykes range from about 20 metres to 120 metres in length and 1 to 5 metres in thickness. There has been no drilling on any of the lithium targets.
Bynoe Lithium and Gold Project
The Bynoe Lithium and Gold Project occurs within the Litchfield Pegmatite Belt, a geological zone that hosts LCT pegmatites, that extends 180 kilometres in a southerly direction from Darwin Harbour.
The Bynoe Pegmatite Field has a history of tin mining and is prospective for tantalum and alkali metals, with the Company’s Project being immediately adjacent to the advancing Finnis Lithium Project of Core Lithium Limited.
A review of work undertaken by previous tenement holders has generated 9 areas with geochemical vectors for lithium mineralisation.
Terms of the Agreement
Lithium Australia has granted Charger an option to acquire a 70 per cent interest in tenements that are unencumbered, and 100 per cent of one encumbered tenement.
The consideration payable to Lithium Australia, by Charger is:
- $100,000 for reimbursement of previous exploration expenditure incurred on the Tenements; and
- 8,800,000 fully paid ordinary shares (‘Shares’) of Charger; and
- $200,000 cash and 2,750,000 Shares upon the establishment of either a JORC 2012 of: inferred resource of 10,000 tonnes contained nickel equivalent; or inferred resource of 10 Million tonnes at 1.2 per cent Li2O; or inferred resource of 100,000 ounces at more than 2 grams per tonne of gold equivalent.
The transaction is subject to due diligence and Charger receiving approval from ASX for its Shares to be admitted to the official list of ASX (as defined in the ASX Listing Rules).
The full announcement can be found here.
